You might remember I wrote about the Kirrins and the Mannering/Trents going on dates before. That time I paired Julian with Lucy-Ann, Dick with Dinah, George with Jack and Anne with Philip. This time, I’m going to swap them around and it will be as if the other dates never happened.

DICK AND LUCY-ANN

“This is a lovely place, Dick” said Lucy-Ann, “I’ve never walked through here before.”

“I discovered it quite by accident, actually,” replied Dick, “but it is lovely. I like to come from a wander when I can.”

They walked in comfortable silence for a while, each sneaking glances at the other and smiling at each other when they made eye contact. Then Lucy-Ann stopped suddenly and frowned.

With that, she moved closer to the tree to try and coax the animal down to a lower branch. Unfortunately, she was not looking where she was putting her feet, and stepped into a rabbit hole. With a sudden cry, she stumbled sideways.

Dick sighed. He helped Lucy-Ann to sit on a tree stump and eyed the tree critically. Grabbing a shoulder-height branch he hoisted himself up into the tree. Standing up, he put out his arms to lift the cat down. The cat turned its back on Dick, flicked its tail, and quickly made its way to a broken branch trailing almost to the ground on the other side of the tree. With total ease, the cat walked down the branch, jumped lightly to the ground and sauntered off through the trees.

“Right then,” said Dick. “That’s that done then.”

Lucy-Ann stifled a laugh. “Sorry, Dick. You did very well. I guess the cat wasn’t stuck after all.”

“No, but you look like you might need a bit of rescuing,” replied Dick, dropping down from the tree.

“I know just the chap for the job,” said Lucy-Ann looking up at him.

GEORGE AND PHILIP

Before Philip could step forward to open the restaurant door, George grabbed the handle and held it open for him.

“Er, thanks” he muttered. “Reservations for two, under Mannering?” he said to the waitress standing at the podium.

Philip and George followed the waitress to a quiet corner table, where George’s glare sent Philip quickly to his own seat without helping George into hers. The waitress pretended not to notice before handing out menus and informing them of the specials.

“You really don’t let men do anything for you, do you?” Philip asked George as he read the menu.

“I don’t need men to do anything for me,” replied George. “I’m as good as a man any day.”

Deciding not to push the issue, Philip steered the conversation to less controversial topics, and soon had George laughing about some of the things he and Jack had got up to at school. George had some fairly amusing anecdotes herself, and any awkwardness has disappeared before the main course arrived.

As they left the restaurant, utterly stuffed after three courses, Philip reached out to take George’s elbow on the stairs. George immediately pulled her arm away starting to say “I don’t need…” before breaking off and grimacing as her foot landed in something warm and squishy on the next step.

“I know,” smiled Philip. “It’s just I noticed the spilt take-away food there and thought you’d rather not stand in it. But I guess if you’re ‘as good as a man’, you don’t mind.”

“No.” sniffed George. “It’s not a problem” she said, discreetly trying to scrape congealing gravy off the side of her shoe.

JULIAN AND DINAH

“George’s boat is being painted, but I know how much you wanted to see Kirrin Island,” said Julian, “so I thought we’d take the under-sea tunnel, if that’s OK with you?”

“Of course,” replied Dinah. “I’m quite used to secret tunnels and passages. Do you have torches?”

“I do.”

“What are we waiting for then?”

Julian led the way to the old quarry and admired the way Dinah fearlessly scrambled down the steep sides. “Uncle Quentin had a steel door put over the tunnel entrance, to keep out trouble-makers,” he explained to Dinah. “I’ve got the key here, though.”

Julian opened the low door which squealed in protest. “I’ll go first,” he said before handing Dinah a torch and crawling in to the tunnel.

Dinah easily kept up with Julian through the long sea-tunnel, and seemed unperturbed by the booming sea above. On the island Julian showed her the wreck, the ruins and the cave. They sat dipping their feet in the rock-pools outside the cave, and Julian picked up a starfish to show Dinah. Dinah wrinkled up her nose when he offered it to her to hold.

Eventually the light grew dimmer and the evening turned chilly. The two headed back into the dungeons to walk back through the tunnels. Julian was just thinking how nice it was to date a girl who wasn’t afraid of dark tunnels and ‘creepy’ wrecks when Dinah stopped abruptly.

“What was that?” she asked, her voice sounding slightly unsteady.

Julian listened carefully, and identified the source of the scrabbling and squeaking.

“Oh, there are probably a few rats in these tunnels,” he said airily. “But don’t worry, they’re more afraid of you, than you are of-“

He didn’t finish his sentence before Dinah shrieked and ran off down the tunnel. “Hie, Dinah, wait!” he called. When she didn’t stop he started jogging after her. Quickly he realised she’d taken a wrong turn and he stopped. Shouting after her again, he realised he could barely hear her footsteps.

Retracing his steps, he raced down the right tunnels and back to Kirrin Cottage. Luckily George and Timmy were there, and after panting out his story, they accompanied him back to the tunnels. Timmy quickly found Dinah, and led everyone safely out to the quarry.

George didn’t say anything to Dinah, just gave Julian a look and took Timmy home.

“I guess I should have told you I was a bit afraid of some animals,” said Dinah, not meeting Julian’s eyes.

“Well, I suppose you can’t be brave about everything,” he replied, giving her a hug.

ANNE AND JACK

“This is the life,” said Jack contentedly, sitting back in his chair.

“Mmmmmmm” Kiki agreed, diving into the marmalade on the sideboard for another beak-full.

“You’d better not let Anne catch you doing that, old thing. She made that marmalade herself.”

“Mmmmmmm” Kiki said again, flapping over to Jack’s shoulder as the kitchen door opened.

“I’ve brought some for Kiki too,” said Anne, producing a small plate with a small slice on it.

“Mmmmmmm,” said Kiki.

After dessert, Jack took the dishes through to the kitchen. When he returned Anne led him through to the lounge, leaving Kiki in the dining-room. They spent a pleasant hour chatting before Jack suddenly wondered about Kiki.

He went into the dining-room, but couldn’t see her anywhere. The door to the kitchen was open, however.

“Anne,” called Jack. “I’m ever so sorry, but I think Kiki got into the pantry.”

“Oh that’s OK,” replied Anne. “She can’t have done much harm.”

“Are you kidding?” said Jack, “She’ll have eaten everything she could get her greedy beak on!”

Anne just smiled, and opened the pantry door.

Kiki flew to Jack’s shoulder, and Jack peered into the almost empty pantry, looking more and more confused as his eyes scanned the shelves.

“Mother emptied out the pantry yesterday to have new shelves fitted,” explained Anne. “We used up what we could, the rest is in a kitchen cupboard… all that I put in there was a small dish of marmalade and one of sunflower seeds…”

“God save Anne,” said Kiki, and cackled.

I hope you liked these. Some of these were harder to write than others (I couldn’t think of anything for Jack and Anne for ages!) Now I’ve written all variations, which pairings do you like best? I’m toying with writing more for some of the pairings, maybe so it’d be good to know which ones work best.

6 Responses to If the Kirrins and Mannering/Trents went on dates, the remix

Well done, Fiona. I understand why you had problems with Anne and Jack as Anne is such a pleasant character and very good natured. Mind you Jack must have been comfortable with her as she is so very like his sister. I can imagine them getting on very well. Julian is just the boy to cope with Dinah as he has had plenty of training with handling George. Again I would expect thm to make a very good match. In some ways Phillip would be good with George as he has had to cope with his sister but I would expect their relationship could be volatile! Dick with Lucy-Ann also would be good as Dick likes his sister, Anne.

Great, Fiona!
I think I liked Dinah disappearing in the tunnels under the sea best, because those tunnels are my favorite scenes in any of the suspenseful Blyton series of books.
But my # 2 would definitely be Jack and Anne plus Kiki. I could imagine so well what Kiki would do or try to do if left alone in the kitchen. It must have been very tempting. I thought it was very nice of Anne not to scold him when she noticed the marmalade on his beak.
Philip taking George ot for dinner was very funny as well and just as I imagined it to be. George hasn’t changed a bit!
The story about Lucy-Ann and Dick reminded me of my own “cat stuck on a high tree” adventure when I still lived in Maine. This was around 2003 or 2004.

It was in the middle of winter and we had lots and lots of snow as high up as my shoulders were. I had cleared a path between the house and the huge barn where our barn cats, 5 dogs and the horse lived. I also had cleared a path from the side window of the barn to the path to the house, because our barn cats liked to use it to go to the toilet. At night the barn doors were closed.
One of the young cats, Little One, managed to climb up a very high tree next to the log house and then meowed very frightened. I tried to talk him down, but he wouldn’t move.
Finally I piled lots of snow under that tree to make the fall more cushioned for him (sorry, English is not my first language).
Of course I continued talking to him to encourage him to come back down. After a while his mom, Kalamazoo, his dad, Scruffy, and his two siblings George and Fluffy did sit down next to me and started meowing up to Little One.
Little One listened to their meowing for a while, reconsidering it and finally the poor guy slowly started climbing down with his derriere first. The last 3 meters/9 feet he jumped into the high pile of snow. He shook himself, snuggled with his mom for a moment, then walked up to me and purred and pushed himself towards my boots as if he wanted to thank me for the snow cushion :). Will never forget about this day.

I rated your stories 5 stars. I love those fanfic stories on my favorite characters from the Adventure and the FF series :)!!!
Please don’t stop creating more!
Could you also write a full new adventure for the Adventurous Four? I discovered those books very late in life, Bought them in old hardcover editions in 2008, but did not read them before 2010 or 2011. Believe me, it felt as good as way back in the mid sixties when I discovered the very first FF book.
Thank you so much for creating these stories. I love them.

Thanks Francis and Chrissie.
Basically, what you’re saying is ALL the pairings are good and I should write more about them all? 😉
I’m not sure about writing a novel, I have enough trouble writing very short stories!